Microsoft's monthly "Patch Tuesday" event is happening today, and one of the updates that the company is releasing has been created for Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 8.1. As revealed in a new support page, the update will disable the browser's Enhanced Protected Mode by default.

Previously, the mode was enabled by default in both the desktop and Modern UI versions of IE11 on Windows 8.1 when the OS was released in its public preview build. The support page states, "This was done so that we could receive feedback and data about sites that use add-ons that are incompatible with Enhanced Protected Mode."

However, it appears that having that mode as the default on IE11 has served its purpose. Microsoft stated, "The data we received from our releases let us identify and work site owners and software developers to update their sites to a plug-in-free experience, or to provide new versions of their plug-ins that are compatible with Enhanced Protected Mode."

Microsoft still recommends that IE11 users enable Enhanced Protected Mode if they have any compatible add-ons installed. This can be done by going to the Internet Options menu in the browser, and then clicking on the "Enable Enhanced Protected Mode" setting on the Advanced tab.

It may show as 'enabled', however it may also be doing nothing. If there is a test to confirm that it is indeed active, or if MS were to issue an announcement then we would know for sure. I have not seen anything as yet. Let us know if you can confirm either way.